1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a biopsy apparatus, and, more particularly, to a biopsy apparatus having an integrated thumbwheel mechanism for manual rotation of a biopsy cannula.
2. Description of the Related Art
A biopsy may be performed on a patient to help in determining whether the cells in a biopsied region are cancerous. One biopsy technique used to evaluate breast tissue, for example, involves inserting a biopsy probe into the breast tissue region of interest to capture one or more tissue samples from the region. Such a biopsy technique often utilizes a vacuum to pull the tissue to be sampled into a sample notch of the biopsy probe, after which the tissue is severed and collected. One type of vacuum assisted biopsy apparatus includes a hand-held driver assembly having a vacuum source, and a disposable biopsy probe assembly configured for releasable attachment to the driver assembly. The biopsy probe typically includes a biopsy cannula, e.g., a needle, having a side port for receiving the tissue to be sampled.
During a biopsy procedure, it may be desirable to position the side port to various angular positions around a longitudinal axis of the biopsy cannula without having to rotate the hand-held driver assembly. One console-type biopsy device includes a control console tethered to a hand-held driver assembly, wherein the control module is programmed to provide automatic indexing of the side port to predetermined angular positions. However, such automatic indexing may limit the ability of the physician to make real-time changes and/or minute changes to the angular position of the side port.
Also, it is known to provide manual indexing of the side port of the biopsy cannula by attaching a knob to the distal end of the biopsy cannula, and then simply rotate the knob to position the side port to the desired angular position. One disadvantage, however, is that such an arrangement requires the physician to hold the handle of the hand-held driver assembly in one hand, while rotating the knob with the other hand.